Well, the engine (a 6.0) is not much bigger than the Cummins found in Dodge diesels which is a 5.9 and gives helluva good MPG, my wild guess for the International truck would be 12 mpg on the road and 8 in the city.
Today's wednesday, buy a pollo loco and get half free Nico On 9/5/07, David Locklear <dlocklea...@gmail.com> wrote: > > The International Truck dealer here in Houston has 3 new 4x4 MXT's, > and there is a 4th one on the road already. > > http://truckaccessoryguide.com/img/internationalmxt.jpg > > From a distance and even up close, the vehicle is very impressive looking. > > > I went by there today and the salesman let me sit in the driver's seat. > > I felt like I was behind the wheel of monster truck. > > There is plenty of leg room and headroom for 2 obese cavers in the front > row. > The center has a very large storage area. The dashboard > instrumentation is > angled towards the driver and away from the passenger. There is a > large 7 inch > navigation screen. Above the sun visors, are 2 trays to hold > books, maps, CD's, > DVD's, medicine, sunglasses, etc. And a spot for a CB or another > similar gadget. I am pretty sure it had cruise control. > > The cab design resembled something from the 80's. I didn't see any > airbags or > iPOD ports or anything you would expect from a 2007 or luxury model > vehicle in > the over $ 87,000 range. > > The 2nd row of seats is huge. There is so much leg room. There > is a tiny bit > of storage area behind the seats, and underneath them. 3 obese > cavers could > ride comfortably cross-country in the MXT. I believe you could rig > a spot for one > adult to sleep on the back bench. There is a 10 inch fold down > television for > the rear passengers. The back window doesn't do anything like open > which is > something I would want on a $ 88,000 truck. There is no sun-roof > or roof-rack > or anything on the roof, except for some clearance lights which are > probably not > LED. > > > I got to look under the hood. There is a giant engine under the > hood that resembles the motor on a bulldozer. It looked like > technology from the 70's. I didn't see anything that looked > hi-tech like you would see on a Volkswagen or Mercedes CDI engine. > There was no fancy Blu-tec emissions stuff. I don't know anything > about diesels, so I can not comment any further. But it looks > like there is enough torque to do anything a caver would ever > contemplate doing with a truck. > > The tires and wheels seem to be well designed. You could probably > put even bigger tires if you could find some 42's or 44's, but why > would you want to. There is enough ground clearance that several > cavers could lay their sleeping bags down under the chassis. You > could easily cross a streambed in the MXT. > ( there are a few in the Sierra Madres, right ? ) > > I didn't look underneath, but I don't believe there is any special > skid-platting. The axles are so huge and the parts are so heavy > duty, that skid plating would probably just add extra weight. But > the step rails are very well designed. > > To the best of my knowledge the MXT doesn't have any of the 4x4 > features that rock-crawlers like, for example, locking differentials, > granny gears, etc. The axles do not appear to articulate very > much, but there are still people who prefer leaf springs and solid > axles. > > The color of the truck is a bright blue, but also comes in silver and > black. > ( I believe it is also available in red. ) > > There are currently no accessories like a Jeep would have, such as > winch or custom camper tops. The bed is huge, and flat and lined > with aluminum > diamond plate on bottom and all sides. Tailgate requires tall strong > person > to open. > > The back-up camera lens is specially integrated into a very fancy rear > aluminum bumper. > > > I can think of a lot of jeep trails in the Sierra Madres where the MXT > would be too wide or too tall. But if your goal is to take 5 or 6 > large cavers cross-country for a month with a ton of caving gear then > maybe this is the vehicle for you. This truck > would work great on some of the remote logging roads of Mexico, but the > banditos > or federales or zapatistas would probably want to kill you for it. > > > I like the MXT. I would NEVER commute to work in it or use it as a > daily vehicle. But I can see it as a fun vehicle for a group of > cavers to cross streams or drive across the desert. ( Someone might > be able to write it off as a business expense. ) > > I would feel very safe driving the MXT down the highway. It would > certainly > tow a large object to a remote area better than any consumer truck. But > what would you be towing ? A giant barbeque pit? You couldn't tow > a camper-trailer up in the remote mountains, but maybe out into the remote > flatlands. > > I don't know what kind of mileage the MXT gets, but if it is 8 miles a > gallon, then the > range of the vehicle is only 320 miles. So you would have to carry > extra fuel, > which shouldn't be a problem. I didn't notice where the spare tire > was or if it > even had one. > > Parallel parking a 21 foot long truck would not be easy, especially in > some of the > little towns in Mexico, and you can just forget about going to Real de > Catorce. [ It > would be fun to try to drive it thru the tunnel though, and you could > then park it > and walk the rest of the way, which is what a lot of people do anyways. ] > > I think my number one thing I didn't like about the vehicle was the > lack of articulation in the axles, and next was probably the lack of a > turbo-charger. In summary, it seemed the mechanics of the vehicle > was old un-reliable technology. Maintenance would be expensive > and you would be limited > as to which mechanics could work on the MXT. > > I think your money would be better spent to get a diesel Ford > Excursion or Dodge Mega-Cab and then put your favorite after market > products on it > > > International Trucks is planning for a more luxurious model of this truck. > > If you consider the cost of a $ 89,000 truck plus tax, plus fuel cost, > plus > maintenance cost, and total that, you could have probably purchased a > very nice commercial cave in Texas. Or you could buy a his and hers > diesel SUV from Mercedes with all the latest technology. > > I hope to see a hybrid-biodiesel MXT in the next 20 years. Maybe then > it will be more practical. I would like to see what kind of fiberglass > camper tops, you can match to fit the MXT. 4 adult cavers should be > able > to sleep very comfortably back there if it had a camper shell. > > > I will give International a B-plus for the introduction of the MXT > line, and hope > that they eventually re-fine the truck to make it a more practical caving > vehicle. > > > David Locklear > > > > P.S. > > > Here are the specs on the motor: > > http://www.internationaldelivers.com/site_layout/engine/vt365detail.asp > > . > The specs for the 1000 RDS transmission are shown on the table below: > > http://www.allisontransmission.com/documents/product/specs_RDS.pdf > > http://www.waterouspower.com/img/products/trans_rds.jpg > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com > For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com > >
